The Sopranos (contains spoilers)

[IRiSHMaFIA]

After watching tonights episode I'm finding it surprisingly boring I thought the last few eps were going to be brilliant, but so far they've been a letdown.

One thing I'm noticing is they're really changing Tony's personality bigtime and making him out to be more of a prick in his way of thinking, but that all has to do with him being a compulsive gambler which is a new twist entirely.

The way I see things shaping up now is everyone is going to get pissed off with Tony because he's gambling every dime he gets away, and after pissing away that $100,000 he made himself look weak and completely out of hand. I think this weakness will be his downfall and they'll feel no other option but to top him off.

[Kezza]

I agree, IRiSH. It's almost like the writers are just pissing away all of the episodes until the finale.

I also have noticed the manipulation of Tony's personality and that it seems to have come out of nowhere. For exampe, suddenly Tony's being such a jerk to his old friend (the Jewish man - can't think of his name at the moment - is it Sol?) who, until now, he's always treated like a father figure.

It seems as though everything is leading to a showdown between Tony and Phil Leotardo. And I don't find Phil to be as interesting a character as Johnny Sac, which is a shame. Guess we'll have to wait and see and hope that it picks up......

[Kezza]

Whoa, the episode shown on Sunday 13 May 07 was a real shocker -- I never anticipated that Tony would murder Christopher!!! If anyone was going to do it, I would have predicted Paulie.

My mum thinks what drove Tony to ultimately kill him was because Tony noticed the tree branch that broke through the passenger window, where the baby's car seat was installed. Mum recokons that, if Christopher's daughter was in the car, she would have been killed -- a scenario that gave Tony the motive to end Christopher's life. In fact, Tony mentioned several times that the tree branch had broken through the window next to the car seat.

Interesting stuff -- excellent episode (finally!)!!

[major.tom]

Kezza] that could well be. I think it was something more selfish. Since Christopher was back on the drink/drugs, he can no longer be trusted (eg. not to get pinched and pressured to turn states evidence; to be on his best game, etc). But moreover, by being under the influence, he put Tony's life at risk -- I think that's the part Tony couldn't forgive. Purely self-interest.

After this, I don't really care what happens to Tony, as long as he doesn't live happily ever after. That could mean jail, being gunned down in a turf war or (my personal opinion) the witness protection program.

Did you see last night's episode? I don't want to spoil anything...

[Aja]

[Kezza]

[Kezza]

[Kezza]

Well, here's my insight on the episode shown on 3 June 07:

Dr. Melfi is conflicted about having Tony as a patient. This is due to literature involving talk therapy and sociopathic personalities. The literature claims that sociopathic personalities use talk therapy as another outlet for their crimes/misdeeds. In effect, the talk therapy and interaction with the therapist serves as an outlet for the sociopath to further enhance their wrongdoings. These sociopaths, whilst doing horrible acts, also focus on the importance of children and families to offset their evil actions. Dr. Melfi is conflicted about this and views Tony as someone who is "using" her for this purpose. Thus, Dr. Melfi ends her doctor-patient relationship with Tony.

Meanwhile, Phil Leotardo orders that Silvio, Bobby and Tony be assassinated. When Bobby is killed whilst looking at model trains in a hobby shop, we're watching and thinking, "Oh, no! Not Bobby!"

Then, Silvio is shot multiple times in his car outside the Bada Bing club. We're thinking, "Oh, no! We don't want Silvio to die!"

But then it occurred to me: the show opened with Silvio murdering a man by choking him to death. He is also the same man who murdered Adriana in cold blood. Earlier in the current series, Bobby went to Canada and coldly killed a man.

So, here I am, hoping that these men, who have committed numerous heinous acts amongst themselves, be spared a grisly death.

Doesn't that make me just like the therapist? That these sociopathic personalities have earned my sympathies to the point where I'm hoping that they don't die? That, for whatever reason, I actually LIKE these characters?

Which leads me to my questions: Do you think that the psychiatrist-patient relationship between Tony and Dr. Melfi served as, if you will, a "metaphor" for the entire series? That we, as viewers, were essentially the "psychiatrist" and were also taken in by these sociopaths because we wished that no harm would come to them -- even though they were relentless in harming others?

I would love to hear other opinions on this theory!!

[major.tom]

Yes and no, Kezza. I don't think that Melphi was Tony's therapist out of sympathy. She thought she could make a difference and treated it as any other doctor/patient relationship. When she found out about the study, she concluded that his therapy was a waste of her time since, if anything, it helped Tony to continue being a gangster (and, at worst, it made him better at it).

But there is a strange dynamic involved between the audience cheering for anti-heroes. Frankly, I empathized more with Silvio than with Tony -- to my knowledge, Sil never murdered his cousin. While some events over the last few years make it easy to empathize with Tony at times (eg. his mother prompting the attempt on his life), he is a sociopath and deserves some form of justice. I haven't yet decided what I would consider a satisfying conclusion. Something to ponder (but not too long -- the series finale is only 4 days away).

On a sad note, unless Silvio pulls through (he was in the hospital, last I heard), we'll never again hear, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

[major.tom]

Well, what did everyone think of the finale?

My verdict: at least we got to hear the sound of Phil Leotardo's head being squashed like a grape.

[6ULDV8]

[Kezza]

It seems as though the finale was .... well, just kind of a "life goes on" thing. At the end, we were made to think that one of those 2 men in the diner were going to shoot Tony, but since it was the "finale", the audience might have been over-anticipating a dramatic ending. It could be that Tony does get indicted on the racketeering charges since Carlo (hope I got the name right -- the guy that was supposed to meet Paulie at the Bing but never showed) flipped and gave evidence to the government.

I admit I laughed when one of the young onlookers vomited when he witnessed Phil getting his head smashed. What a way to go!

But, as Tony pointed out to Phil's men, their former boss Johnny Sac didn't want the relationship with Tony's crew to deteriorate as Phil was causing to happen. All of the men at the table during the meeting called by Little Carmine realized that they all could be killed if Phil was allowed to continue.

I heard a TV commentator on the radio saying yesterday that the ending is left open in order to allow for a Sopranos film (or one-off episode) in the future.

[Skylace]

The feeling it gave me was Tony is going to be spending the rest of his life looking over his shoulder and will never be able to "enjoy the good moments" that AJ was talking about.

[Kezza]

[Skylace]